BitLocker Drive Encryption for Windows 7

June 12, 2009 at 12:41 pm | In BitLocker, Blog, Microsoft, Windows 7 | 2 Comments

The recent Microsoft Security Newsletter, Volume 6, Issue 6, included references to two great TechNet articles on BitLocker in Windows 7:

BitLocker Drive Encryption Deployment Guide for Windows 7

BitLocker Drive Encryption Step-by-Step Guide for Windows 7

I plan to implement this when I upgrade to Windows 7.

Links for the Weeks of April 27, 2009

May 1, 2009 at 2:41 pm | In Blog, DAI, Develpment Alternatives, International Development, NMAP, Nessus, USAID | Leave a Comment

Afghan Villages Bolstered by Micro-Hydro Power Plant from DAI Success Stories

Livelihoods do not come easily for those living in the foothills of the Hindu Kush. The few roads are rough and hard to travel, and homes and shops in many villages go dark after sundown for lack of electricity.
Families in eastern Afghanistan have also been forced to live with war. Those in provinces such as Nangarhar, which shares a border with Pakistan and its tribal areas, live each day under the threat of violence.

Prospects are improving, however, for people in the village of Dodarek in Nangarhars Dare Noor district. A mountain stream runs through the village, and though it is only a few feet wide, its water is powerful. Now, thanks to a DAI-led project, some of the water from the stream flows through a turbine that creates electricity for homes and shops.

This project is a blessing to the people of this village, said Mir Alam Khan, the head of Dodaraks tribal shura, or village council. The economy of the community has improved, and I am sure more significant, positive changes will occur…

Liberian Forces Cheered After Emergency Bridge Replacement from DAI Success Stories

Making a difference in developing nations is often as much about reacting creatively to crisis and opportunity on the ground as it is about implementing the best laid plans of development programmers. So it proved in the community of Bleh, where the demise of a worn-out bridge turned into an example of civil-military coordination that came to the aid and won the hearts of thousands of Liberians.

The log bridge spanning the Sanquin River provided a crucial link for people in southern Liberia, connecting families from Bleh with services to the south and enabling women to cross the river and tend their crops. In addition, the 190-feet-long bridge served the Greenville-to-Buchanan National Road, a 150-mile laterite road that snakes through the rain forest between two of the countrys key ports.

The wooden bridge had long suffered under the burden of overloaded commercial and logging trucks, and in September 2008 another weighty truck proved one too many, causing irreparable damage to grillage piers and crossbeams, and forcing Liberias Ministry of Public Works to close the bridge to vehicles.

What to do? Staff at the DAI-implemented Liberia Community Infrastructure Project II (LCIP II) realized that a Bailey bridgea portable prefabricated bridge typically used by military engineerswas available in-country and might serve the purpose, at least temporarily. They quickly began working with the Ministries of Public Works and Defense, the newly restructured Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) Engineering Battalion, and engineering firm PAEs Security Sector Reform military mentors and trainers…

Using Nmap Results With Nessus Batch Scanning from Tenable Network Security by Paul Asadoorian

A Nessus user recently asked us the following question:

"I would like to have Nessus read Nmap scan results from the command line. I already have Nmap portscanning and operating system fingerprinting, can I import the Nmap findings using Nessus in batch mode?"

Tenable has supported Nmap usage within Nessus for several years. Nmap and Nessus have different types of scanning philosophies and understanding how they work can help you achieve success with your network scanning efforts. The Nessus server includes its own portscanning, service fingerprinting and operating system identification techniques that are similar but independent from Nmap’s. However, you may run into a situation where Nmap was run first and you already have the output from this tool and want to apply the results to your vulnerability scan. I set out to do this in my lab and realized this would be a good opportunity to highlight some of the features in Nessus. Below is a step-by-step guide on configuring Nessus to run batch mode scans based on Nmap results:

SharePoint and Project Links for the Week of April 27, 2009

May 1, 2009 at 2:28 pm | In Blog, MOSS, MOSS 2007, Microsoft, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Project 2007, SharePoint | Leave a Comment

Announcing Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Microsoft Project 2007 and Microsoft Project Server 2007 from Christophe Fiessinger’s Blog

As part of the SP2 release we announced the following requirements for the next release of SharePoint and Project Server: Windows Server 2008 and 64 bit. We will be publishing guidance on how to upgrade your existing Project Server 2007 farm to Windows Server 2008 64 bit in the coming weeks on TechNet. Expect full system requirements for Project Server 2010 at a latter date.

Deploy Service Pack 2 for Office Project Server 2007 from Project Server 2007 Newly Published Content

This article describes the process of deploying Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Microsoft Office Project Server 2007. Guidance and recommendations are given for successfully completing the process. This article includes links to the SP2 download sites as well as informative Knowledge Base (KB) articles.

Downloadable book: Cube Building Service in Office Project Server 2007 from Project Server 2007 Newly Published Content

An updated version of this downloadable book is now available. Downloadable books contain content from the TechNet technical library, which is revised regularly. This updated book includes the most recent version of this content as of April 2009.

Top 6 new STSADM operations in SharePoint 2007 SP2 from Todd Klindt’s Blog

By now you’ve had a couple of days to play with SP2. Hopefully the install went well. There’s some new stuff in it that I want to show you. In this post I’ll tell you about the new STSADM operations that are introduced. I did an "STSADM" on a box running SP1 and the Infrastructure Update (build 12.0.0.6318) and on a box running the hot off the presses SP2 (12.0.0.6421). There are six STSADM operations in SP2 that aren’t there before. To make it fun, I’m going to list them in order of how excited I am about them.

#6 – variationsfixuptool

#5 – exportipfsadminobjects

#4 and #3 – setqueryprocessoroptions and listqueryprocessoroptions

#2 – enumallwebs

#1 – preupgradecheck

Service Pack 2 for SharePoint Products and Technologies (white papers) from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Newly Published Content

These two white papers provide information about the important updates included in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with Service Pack 2 (SP2).

Pre-upgrade scanning and reporting for future releases (Windows SharePoint Services) from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Newly Published Content

This article describes how to use the Stsadm preupgradecheck operation to scan farm servers before starting an upgrade to ensure that some upgrade prerequisites are met and to detect known issues that can prevent the upgrade from completing successfully. The results of the scan enable you to address any issues that are identified.

Run a farm that uses read-only databases (Office SharePoint Server) from SharePoint Server 2007 Newly Published Content

This article describes how to run a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm in which content databases have been set to be read-only (a read-only farm). A read-only farm can be part of a disaster recovery environment that runs against mirrored or log-shipped content databases, or it can be part of a highly available maintenance or patching environment that provides user access while another version of the farm is being updated.

Microsoft News and Links for the Week of April 27, 2009

May 1, 2009 at 2:09 pm | In Blog, Microsoft, Office 2007, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Server | Leave a Comment

Lot of stuff this week including Windows 7 Release Candidate, Office 2007 SP2, Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate.

Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 is now available from Springboard Series

Today we are proud to announce the launch of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Service Pack 2 (SP2) represents the latest step in Microsoft’s commitment to continuous improvement. It includes all of the updates that have been delivered since SP1, as well as support for new types of hardware and emerging hardware standards. And since it comes with a single installer for both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, SP2 will be easy for IT Pros to manage, deploy, and support. For an overview of the changes introduced in SP2, check out the notable changes document.

Windows 7 RC is available for TechNet and MSDN subscribers to download from Springboard Series

We are pleased to announce that the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) is available for immediate download to our TechNet and MSDN subscribers. If you’re not a TechNet Plus subscriber, please click here to learn about the benefits of becoming one.
Windows 7 RC will be made available to the general public on May 5, 2009. You will then be able to download Windows 7 RC here, through the Springboard Series on TechNet. Windows 7 Ultimate is the Release Candidate edition; it will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions in English, French, Japanese, German, and Spanish.

Improvements to AutoPlay from Engineering Windows 7 by e7blog

As mentioned before on this blog (regarding our UAC changes) and on the IE blog (regarding the SmartScreen® filter for malware), we have an increased focus to enable customers to be in control and feel confident about the software that they choose to run on their computers. Folks on this blog have also commented about the concerns they have specifically in the AutoPlay area. This blog entry addresses some of the changes that we have made to increase customer confidence when using their media and devices with Windows.  It is authored by Arik Cohen, a program manager on the Core User Experience team. –Steven  [Note: There was a technical problem so this post was reposted in its entirety.]

Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate is also available from Paul’s SuperSite blog

Let’s not forget that the server companion to Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, is also available in RC form today. I’ll have a lengthy write-up about this release out late today or tomorrow, but here’s the word from the Windows Server blog:



Microsoft: Your feedback is important to us. Please stay on the line from Paul’s SuperSite blog

The Windows 7 Feedback Tool is a pre-release only tool.  As we work towards finalizing Windows 7 we have removed the launch UI for the Feedback Tool, however the tool itself is still in the RC build.  If you need to report a bug that falls into one of the categories mentioned below, you may run the following command to start the Feedback Tool:

rundll32.exe FeedbackTool.dll,ShowWizard


Microsoft’s MSDev.com Releases Free Web Seminars: "A Developer’s First Look at Windows 7" from The Road to Know Where

A Developer’s First Look at Windows 7:  This 10 part series introduces Windows 7 with an emphasis on those new features that will be of most interest and use to developers. It consists of: two introductory sessions, one focusing on the new user interface, and one on behind-the-scenes features, two hour-long sessions that cover compatibility and security issues, six shorter sessions which focus on coding for a single new feature.

Who Gets Windows Security Updates? from The Windows Blog by Paul Cooke

RSA was great last week – security was clearly top of mind for the attendees, and I fielded a number of different questions last week about how Microsoft protects our customers. Some are pretty straightforward around how the various Windows 7 security technologies work, but many have focused on how we actually deliver protection to customers on an ongoing basis.

One question that comes up more than I would have ever expected is: Who gets security updates?

There seems to be a myth that Microsoft limits security updates to genuine Windows users.

Let me be clear: all security updates go to all users.

Talking About Windows from The Windows Blog by Brandon LeBlanc

I get the extreme pleasure of exclusively revealing a new Microsoft community website on Windows today specifically designed for IT Professionals: Talking About Windows.

Talking About Windows is a new website that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Windows 7 from the Microsoft engineers who helped build product as well as showcasing real IT Professionals talking candidly about their implementations and experiences in considering a more modern OS. This is done through a series of videos hosted within the Talking About Windows Website.

Newly Published: Deploy Service Pack 2 for Office Project Server 2007 from Microsoft Enterprise Project Management Content Publishing News

Deploy Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Office Project Server 2007 describes how to deploy SP2 for Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, which is included in 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 (SP2). The article explains how to update a basic installation and a farm deployment, as well as language packs. Guidance and recommendations are given for successfully completing the process. Included are links to the SP2 download sites as well as informative Knowledge Base (KB) articles.

***ERRATA***

The TechNet article published 4/29/09 shows the version number for Project Server 2007 SP2 as 12.0.6425.1000. The correct number is 12.0.6422.1000. This is being corrected and will appear in the article when published next week.

Windows 7 RC Secure WMP Internet Streaming is Impressive from Paul’s SuperSite blog

Barb chimes in on one of the coolest new features in the Windows 7 RC: Internet-based digital media streaming. I was just writing about this for Windows 7 Secrets and I have to say, it’s one of those spontaneous-smile features. It’s just cool.

XP Mode Beta now available and MSDN and TechNet from Paul’s SuperSite blog

And speaking of the Windows 7 RC, you can also download XP Mode Beta (Windows Virtual PC) on MSDN and TechNet now.

Microsoft finally discusses XP Mode in detail from Paul’s SuperSite blog

After allowing Rafael and I to pretty much own the XP Mode discussion for the better part of a week for some reason, Microsoft has finally published some detailed information about this important new Windows 7 feature. I don’t normally just republish entire articles like this, but this one is a big deal, so here we go. I am underlining the bits I think are most relevant…

Windows 7 Links for April 27, 2009

April 27, 2009 at 4:15 pm | In Blog, Microsoft, Windows 7 | Leave a Comment

Many postings over the weekend and today regarding Windows 7.

Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) will be made available to MSDN and Technet subscribers on April 30, 2009 and the public release will begin May 5.

The biggest announcement was that of Windows XP Mode for Windows 7. Paul Thurrott provides and overview and detail in “Secret No More: Revealing Windows XP Mode for Windows 7” and “Windows XP Mode Internals – Part 1 (Overview)”.

Paul also provided a plethora or information on Windows 7:

Windows XP Mode Internals – Part 1 (Overview) – He links to Rafael’s beginning of his deep-dive into XP Mode for Windows 7.

Revealed: More Windows 7 RC details

Now that we have a near-final release candidate (RC) to play with, Rafael and I have been pouring over the licensing policies for the various Windows 7 SKUs (stock keeping units, or "product editions"). Some interesting details have emerged, and I’m pretty sure most of this is all new info.

AAC/H.264/MPEG-2 support will not be provided to Windows 7 Home Basic and Starter customers. That functionality will only go out to Home Premium, Professional, and Enterprise/Ultimate users. But it looks like there will be add-ons made available (free or paid, it’s not clear) to users of low-end Windows 7 versions.

Maximum RAM. All 32-bit versions of Windows 7 "support" 4 GB of RAM, of course. But if you go 64-bit, you can add up to 8 GB in Home Basic and Starter, 16 GB in Home Premium, and 192 GB in Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate.

Windows Media Player Remote Media Experience (RME) is not available in Windows 7 Home Basic or Starter. However, all versions can share media over a home network.

All Windows 7 SKUs support 20 simultaneous SMB connections. This works out to 10 users, apparently.

XP Mode (formerly Virtual PC). As we first revealed yesterday, only Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate are licensed to install XP Mode.

Windows 7 FAQ: Updated for the Release Candidate

Windows 7 Release Candidate Review - The first three parts of his Windows 7 RC review …

Security software changes in Windows 7 RC

I had noticed in one of the previous post-Beta interim builds of Windows 7 that ESET NOD32 was throwing up an Action Center message to the effect that it was incompatible with the way security software communicates its status; previously, NOD32 worked just fine. In the RC build, this has been formalized with an appearance by the familiar Program Compatibility Assistant window shown here. There’s no fix as of yet, but I suspect this change will affect more than just NOD32. I will check.

Windows 7 Feature Focus: Aero Themes - Aero Themes combine desktop backgrounds, Aero glass color, a sounds scheme and a screensaver…

Windows 7 Feature Focus – Series Update for the Windows 7 Release Candidate – He has updated the entire Feature Focus series the Windows 7 Release Candidate…

Windows Weekly 104: Windows 8, Boring Bunny - Leo and he discuss the Windows 7 release candidate, Windows 8, and more…

And from Blake Handler’s The Road to Know Where:

Microsoft’s MSDev.com Releases Free Web Seminars: "A Developer’s First Look at Windows 7"

A Developer’s First Look at Windows 7:  This 10 part series introduces Windows 7 with an emphasis on those new features that will be of most interest and use to developers. It consists of: two introductory sessions, one focusing on the new user interface, and one on behind-the-scenes features, two hour-long sessions that cover compatibility and security issues, six shorter sessions which focus on coding for a single new feature.

Microsoft Press Releases Free Sample Chapters of Upcoming Windows 7 Books

Microsoft Press has released free preview chapters from soon-to-be-published Microsoft Press books about Windows 7.

Microsoft Releases "Product Support Reports" for Windows XP & Windows Vista

Windows 7’s "Problem Steps Recorder" and "Action Center" are powerful new features to help resolve your Windows system problems.

While not as powerful has these new Windows 7 features, Microsoft has released their Microsoft Product Support Reporting Tool (MPSReports) utility that facilitates the gathering of critical system and logging information used in troubleshooting support issues. This information helps diagnose problems in the software quicker and provide solutions.

Also…

Engineering Windows 7 Graphics Performance from Engineering Windows 7 by e7blog

One of the areas of any release of Windows that receives a significant amount of testing and scrutiny is the performance of graphics—desktop graphics all the way to the most extreme CAD and game graphics.  The amazing breadth of hardware supported for Windows and the broad spectrum of usage scenarios contributes to a vibrant ecosystem with many different goals—from just the basics to the highest frame rates on multiple monitors possible.  In engineering Windows 7 we set out to improve the “real world” performance of graphics as well as continue to improve the most extreme elements of graphics. This is work we do in Windows 7 and work our partners do as they work to improve the underlying hardware/software combination through drivers (note: Windows Vista drivers continue to work as they did in Windows Vista, but we’ve also been working with partners on updated drivers for Windows 7 which many of you have been testing through Windows Update downloads). This post looks at this spectrum of engineering as well as the different ways performance is measured.  Ultimately we want to inform you about what we have done in engineering Windows 7, while we leave room for the many forums that will compare and contrast Windows 7 on different hardware and in different scenarios.  This post is written by Ameet Chitre, a program manager on our Desktop Graphics feature team.  –Steven

Links for April 27, 2009

April 27, 2009 at 4:14 pm | In Blog, MOSS, MOSS 2007, Microsoft, Nessus, SharePoint | Leave a Comment

Tips For Using Nessus In Web Application Testing from Tenable Network Security by Paul Asadoorian

While Nessus has traditionally been a network vulnerability scanner, it contains quite a bit of functionality that can be used to identify vulnerabilities in custom web applications. This is not to say that Nessus will replace your favorite web application testing tool (or methodology), but it does provide useful information that can be used as the foundation for web application assessments or to indicate that deeper testing is warranted.

7 Minute Screencast: Color code a SharePoint Calendar – Update from End User SharePoint by EndUserSharePoint

In this screencast, Jim Bob Howard continues his examination of different techniques for color coding a SharePoint calendar.

Laura and Lori: On the Go! Part 3 – Policy Management System from End User SharePoint by EndUserSharePoint

This is Part 3 of Laura and Lori On the Go. In this segment, Laura describes a Policy Management System she implemented using lists, site columns, site content types and publishing HTML fields

LastLogonTimeStamp

April 27, 2009 at 2:31 pm | In Active Directory, Blog, Microsoft, Windows Server | Leave a Comment

The one post of mine that has garnered the most hits had to do with LastLogonTimeStamp. A post from Ask the Directory Services Team entitled “The LastLogonTimeStamp Attribute” – “What it was designed for and how it works” provides a very nice overview of the lastLogontimeStamp attribute introduced in Windows Server 2003.

SharePoint Links – Week of April 20, 2009

April 24, 2009 at 4:08 pm | In MOSS, MOSS 2007, Microsoft, Project Server, Project Server 2007, SharePoint | Leave a Comment

3 Minute Screencast: Create a Master Calendar in SharePoint from End User SharePoint

Here’s a quick, 2 minute screencast to show the structure and functionality of the EndUserSharePoint.com Master Calendar solution. If you like what you see, there’s a live online workshop next Friday, May 1st. Read the details and join us.

A Hidden Gem – the Preview Pane View in SharePoint from End User SharePoint by Woody Windischman

SharePoint offers a lot of different ways to look at the information in your sites. One of the most interesting is the Preview Pane view. Although it doesn’t show up as a web part on its own, you can use it in almost any list or library simply by modifying the view settings. I hope this article has encouraged you to explore this, as well as some of the other view formats available to you!

10 Minute Screencast: Create a tabbed, layered interface – no code required from End User SharePoint by EndUserSharePoint

A couple weeks ago, I found an intriguing article by Baris Wanschers on how to create tabbed windows in SharePoint with jQuery. Peter Allen from Bits of SharePoint started playing around and created some really nice documentation, using the solution to document itself.

Use case: Automated knowledge base in SharePoint from End User SharePoint by Tony Frankola

The real problem here is email as communication channel. Email is a great tool, easy to use and everything. But the problem is that knowledge from each conversation is lost in a personal inbox. If the receiver does not forward the email to other team members he will be the only one able to solve the problem. This is where SharePoint kicks-in; in this article I am going to describe a simple procedure to automate the knowledge capture with SharePoint (WSS included).

SharePoint Governance Resources from Michael Gannotti

Adding a New User or Group to an Existing SharePoint Site from SharePoint Blank by John Anderson

As well, having not performed this particular task in a "real world" (i.e., outside of training) scenario, I knew that doing so would also serve as a refresher course for me.

The Mystery of the Default Display Style in a SharePoint Picture Library (Part 1 of 2) & from The Mystery of the Default Display Style in a SharePoint Picture Library (Part 2 of 2) from SharePoint Blank by John Anderson

Project Server and SharePoint Server – Better Together or Apart? from SharePoint Joel’s SharePoint Land: Posts by Joel Oleson

In the last month I’ve had a few design sessions and conversations where more than just WSS and SharePoint Server are involved in the deployment.  In one customer it was wild… MS CRM, Performance Point, and Project Server plus the normal MOSS stack.  They were going to do it all in one farm with a bunch of app servers and even add a SQL Reporting server and SQL Analysis server.  It gave me a headache looking at their diagram

Windows 7 Links – Week of April 20, 2009

April 24, 2009 at 3:58 pm | In Microsoft, Windows, Windows 7 | Leave a Comment

Windows 7 could change our perception of PCs from CNet News.com

Can Windows 7 be the savior that manufacturers like Dell and HP have been waiting for? Don Reisinger thinks so.

Windows 7 security enhancements from CNet News.com

As RSA 2009 kicks off, Microsoft begins education campaign about new security features of Windows 7.

Public release of Windows 7 Release Candidate set for May 5 from Paul’s SuperSite blog

Microsoft:

We are pleased to announce that Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) is available. Windows 7 RC is the prerelease version of Windows 7. Since this is not the final release, your PC will gather and send information to Microsoft engineers to help them check the fixes and changes made based on testing of Windows 7 Beta.

Test-drive Windows 7 RC today to see for yourself—and to show your colleagues and customers—how Windows 7 delivers improved management, security, reliability, and performance.

It’s (semi) official: Guest Mode has been removed from Windows 7 from Paul’s SuperSite blog

I’ve documented a new Windows 7 feature called Guest Mode (originally it was called PC Safeguard) but my most trusted source close to Microsoft tells me now that this feature, sadly, has been permanently removed from Windows 7 and will not appear in the RC or RTM versions of the OS. (It had been missing in action from the previous several interim builds we’ve seen.)

Microsoft Releases More "Learning Snacks" Windows 7 Training for IT Professionals from The Road to Know Where

6 NEW LEARNING SNACKS:

Windows 7: A New Approach to Securing Today’s Enterprise from The Windows Blog by Gavriella Schuster

RSA is here again, and presents a great opportunity to discuss the security in Windows 7: specifically how certain features in the OS address key security-related enterprise scenarios. In today’s economic times, businesses and their shareholders need to know that when they make an investment in a product, they are doing so responsibly and securely, and the investment is sound. Windows 7 is this sound investment: it includes features that allow workers to work anywhere, while leaving IT Pros confident that business-related data and content are secure.

Windows 7 Security: Helping Enable the Mobile Workforce from The Windows Blog by Paul Cooke

Along with 17,000+ other security- minded professionals, I’m at RSA in San Francisco this week. For those who are not familiar with the RSA Conference, it’s the premier information security conference of the year. It attracts the best and brightest security folks from around the world. In addition, it is a great place to keep up with what’s going on in the information security marketplace. I’m at RSA to not only see what’s going on in the industry, but to also talk about some of the cool new security features in Windows 7.

End to End Trust and Windows 7 from The Windows Blog by Paul Cooke

I attended Scott Charney’s keynote this morning at RSA – Moving Towards End to End Trust: A Collaborative Effort. I would assume that many of the readers of this blog are not familiar with the End to End Trust story. In a nutshell, End to End trust is Microsoft’s vision for creating a safer, more trusted Internet. It’s a great vision, but it’s also a big job that requires a commitment and focus on the fundamentals—fundamentals that will help deliver the most secure and privacy-enhanced versions of software and services that we have ever delivered. We’re also not going it alone. End to End Trust requires broad collaboration within the industry and Microsoft will continue to share our best practices with the IT communities of our customers.

Steve Riley on Windows 7 Security from The Windows Blog by Paul Cooke

While walking the show floor here at RSA, I ran into Steve Riley, who’s an incredibly passionate and knowledgeable Security Evangelist (or officially “Senior Technical Evangelist”) in Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing organization. He’s a well respected and sought out speaker on security topics. So I thought it would be great to get Steve’s take on his favorite two security features in Windows 7. Take a look at what Steve has to say about Windows 7 security!

Links for the Week of April 20, 2009

April 24, 2009 at 3:53 pm | In Autism, Bob Dylan, D-Link, Dilbert, IT Security, Microsoft, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Project 2007, Nessus, Oracle, Security, network | Leave a Comment

Lot of catching up to do this week. Here goes…

Get 9 free audiobook MP3s from Barnes & Noble from CNet News.com

Heard any good books lately? Here’s your chance to hear eight short stories from well-known authors and one complete novel from no less than Mark Twain, all free for the download.

Newly remastered Bob Dylan CDs from CNet News.com

Just received four remastered Bob Dylan albums, "New Morning," "Before the Flood," "The Basement Tapes," and "Dylan and the Dead" to explore. Nice!

Is Twittering safe? from Dana Epp’s ramblings at the Sanctuary

Dana Epp’s 5 Rules of Safer Twittering

  • Never share information in a tweet that you wouldn’t share with the world.
  • There is no assurance that a Twitter account is the person you believe it is.
  • Never click on links in a tweet, unless you trust the URL.
  • Use a 3rd party Twitter client instead of using the Twitter.com website directly.
  • You never know who is following you. Remember that.

Project Server 2007: Service pack 2 (SP2) Webcasts from Brian Smith’s Project Support WebLog

Next week, on April 28th,  Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Microsoft Office System – including Project and Project Server 2007 will be released, along with SP2 for all the other office applications, including Office SharePoint Server and also WSS.  We have a couple of webcasts organized on the morning of the 29th and the evening of the 30th which hopefully allow us to cover most time zones.  Join Adrian Jenkins and Christophe Fiessinger as they give an overview of this important release, best practices for deployment and also time for questions and answers. 

Please note we will deliver the same webcast twice to accommodate different time zones, we will also record these webcast and will make them available on EPMConnect:

  • Wednesday April 29, from 8-9 am Pacific Time
  • Thursday April 30, from 5-6 pm Pacific Time

Meeting URL
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/lmevents/join?id=OEM042AM&role=attend&pw=ATT5678
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/lmevents/join?id=OEM042PM&role=attend&pw=ATT6789

Dilbert Comic for April 19, 2009

image

Reminds me I need to send off for my Verizon Wireless $50 rebate.

Network Monitor 3.3 has arrived! from Network Monitor

Ladies and gentlemen … the Microsoft Network monitor team is excited to announce the release of Network Monitor 3.3. A record 7 months after version 3.2 this is our quickest release ever, but also one of our most functionality-rich. We have added some innovative features that will simplify your network troubleshooting needs. As always, we have also continued to fix bugs and improve the product in those little but important ways.

SPEEDTEST.NET

I just ran a speed test using speedtest.net from my old desktop. Not Bad:

Average was 15.43 Mb/s down and 1.90 Mb/s up.

Run from my new fast laptop with Gbit network I/F I got up to 59 Mb/s down (avg. 25.49). 

5 Minute Security Assessment from Information Security Short Takes by Bozidar Spirovski

A security assessment is a big deal. It takes a lot of time, requires a good chunk of budget since it is done by independent consultants and the outcome is at best ‘OK, but could be better’.

For all these reasons, as well as some egoistic ones which won’t be mentioned here, a lot of companies avoid hiring a security consultant and doing this assessment.
While the real thing may take time, budget lobbying and guts to admit that you are not perfect, here is a very fast self-assessment which will give you a feeling where are you standing. You can do this assessment on your own time, and no one needs to know the outcome.

Project Spectrum: recognizing the talents of children with autism from Official Google Blog

A couple of years ago, the Google SketchUp team began hearing from a new group of users — people on the autism spectrum. After consulting with some experts, we learned the connection between autism and SketchUp isn’t particularly surprising. Many people on the autism spectrum have visual and spatial strengths, and 3D design software plays to them. With this in mind, we started a program called Project Spectrum.

As part of Autism Awareness Month in April, we’ve launched a new webpage showcasing some great SketchUp artists (Rachel, Jeremy, JP and others). We’ve also created a Getting Started with Google SketchUp video for anyone who wants to learn the basic tools to start modeling. More of the Project Spectrum models can be seen in the Google 3D Warehouse collection. Watch the video below to hear the story behind Project Spectrum and meet some of the kids involved…

Detecting UPnP With Nessus & PVS from Tenable Network Security by Paul Asadoorian

Conficker Attacks UPnP

The Conficker worm behavior has been analyzed by many security professionals who have shared their findings with the community (the paper from SRI is a great example). One of the common findings is that Conficker will connect to the local route/gateway via UPnP and make changes to the firewall, if the firewall supports unauthenticated UPnP. If so, it uses UPnP to open a high numbered port in the firewall, allowing access to that port from the Internet. It then opens the same port on the infected host, and uses it to distribute the worm further across Internet. The use of UPnP as well as insecure UPnP devices can be detected by Tenable’s Nessus and PVS products.

Auditing Linux, Apache, & MySQL Against CIS Benchmarks from Tenable Network Security by Paul Asadoorian

Stacking Up to CIS Benchmarks

The Center for Internet Security (CIS) establishes consensus benchmarks for a large variety of applications and operating systems. These benchmarks are a valuable aid to evaluate the security of your systems. Tenable has produced a number of Nessus audit files that have been certified by the Center for Internet Security to perform audits against the CIS standards. These audit files are available to ProfessionalFeed and Security Center customers through the the Tenable Support Portal.

D-Link Release HD MediaBridge DXN-221 Ethernet to Coaxial Networking Kit from We Got Served by Terry Walsh

Previewed at CES 2009, The D-Link HD MediaBridge Starter Kit (DXN-221) comes with two adaptors, each with a wired Ethernet port and coaxial F-type connector for bridging the two adaptors together. You simply connect one of the adaptors to your router and a nearby coaxial outlet, and the second between the network device and another coaxial outlet.

dxn221 back D Link Release HD MediaBridge DXN 221 Ethernet to Coaxial Networking Kit

The D-Link HD MediaBridge Starter Kit (DXN-221) is available now at $239.99

More Info: D-Link

Microsoft Office Word 2007 "DAISY Translator" Add-in Updated: Save as MP3 from The Road to Know Where

Microsoft & the DAISY Consortium have released their second version of the DAISY Translator for Microsoft Office Word supporting users with disabilities. (Thanks Gray)

QUOTE – Michael Hingson, the President of The Hingson Group: "The DAISY navigation system is one of the most significant developments to be made available since the development of Braille. DAISY allows people who are blind to move around recorded and electronic documents easily and seamlessly in a way so far only available to sighted readers."

–> Download "DAISY Translator" Add-in for Word 2007

Products and Families and Versions – Oh, My! from Oracle E-Business Suite Technology by Steven Chan

I spend a depressing amount of time explaining the relationships between Oracle marketing brands, products, product families, versions, and patchsets to customers as well as internal Oracle staff.  You’re confused too?  Don’t worry, you’re not alone.  Here’s a cheatsheet for the things I spend the most time explaining…

MSBlogs – Directory covering all different Microsoft technologies from Brian Smith’s Project Support WebLog by BriSmith

As Project uses an extensive range of Microsoft technologies many of you will often need information on SQL Server, SharePoint, Windows Server and beyond.  A great source of blog sites covering virtually all Microsoft technologies is http://blogs.technet.com/blogms/pages/directory-of-microsoft-team-blogs.aspx.  I’ve also added a link to my site – so if you read this and forget the URL, then go to the links rather than searching for this posting.  Another great resource on this same site is a directory of free downloads and free online services from Microsoft – http://blogs.technet.com/blogms/pages/microsoft-free-software.aspx.  I left the word “free” out of my title to avoid spam filtering of my RSS feed, but have probably used the word too often and this might end up there anyway.

Thanks to Daniel Good for this really excellent resource!

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